SMNR: Immigration Law & Crimes

Semester: Spring 2012

Class Unique: 29945

Course ID: 397S

Credit Hours: 3

The immigration consequences of criminal convictions have severe effects on a non-citizen's ability to remain in the U.S. Due to the expansion of and retroactive application of criminal grounds of removal (deportation), many non-citizens, including those who have lived for many years in this country, have few avenues that allow them to remain in the U.S. Others face mandatory detention with no possibility of release while their immigration case is pending. Criminal defense lawyers must now advise their immigrant clients of the consequences of taking a guilty plea.
Because of increased federal and local government efforts to identify non-citizens with criminal convictions, greater numbers of non-citizens are entering the immigration system. The government has also increasingly not only used civil removal proceedings against non-citizens but has criminally prosecuted them. While some oppose the expansion of the deportation of non-citizens, particularly those with significant family ties, others support the immigration laws and the expanded efforts to deport this population, on grounds of public safety and differentiation between citizens and non-citizens.
This seminar will focus on the intersection between criminal and immigration law. We will focus on specific grounds of deportation and inadmissibility related to criminal conduct, case law and statutory analysis relating to these provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. We will analyze the laws, policies and the constitutionality of retroactive application of the immigration statutes mandatory detention of non-citizens convicted of crimes and the recent Supreme Court Padilla decision. In addition, we will consider the effectiveness of federal and local governmental initiatives to regulate and/or criminalize the immigrant population.
Students must have previously taken the Immigration Law survey course, the immigration clinic or have had other immigration law experience.
Students must receive the professor's approval to enroll in the class. Please send a short one-page statement explaining your coursework, background and interest in immigration law to shartley@law.utexas.edu. You may include a resume if you wish.